An Implementation of a WSN-based Medical Monitoring System: A pilot study of the Blood Pressure Monitoring of Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract

Intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is a very common complication during hemodialysis. IDH may lead to nausea, vomiting, or anxiety. In some severe cases, it may cause shock or death. Each hemodialysis treatment generally lasts for four to six hours and must be repeated two or three times a week. Currently, the hemodialysis procedure may lead to dangerously low blood pressure when blood pressure is not frequently assessed by medical staff. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to use the technologies of wireless sensor networks (WSN), global systems for mobile communications (GSM), and a MySQL database to develop a PC-based gateway and an automatic monitoring system to collect physiological data during hemodialysis and continuously monitor the IDH status of patients. The clinical definition of IDH during hemodialysis is a decrease in the systolic pressure of at least 20 mmHg and a decrease in the mean arterial pressure (MAP) of at least 10 mmHg. Our system uses a threshold-based algorithm to monitor and record the systolic and mean arterial blood pressure readings. The GSM module is utilized to send medical staff a warning message, and the message is displayed on the monitor if the readings reach a critical point. The experimental results show that this monitoring system is highly reliable.